An 1836 letter from John Curling offering for sale stained glass "most certainly the work of Albert Durer"

 

St Mary the Virgin in Shrewsbury, now a redundant Anglican church, contains some very fine medieval stained glass, installed there in the 1840s. It did not come from Henry the Eighth’s dissolution of the monasteries but from another dissolution, that produced by Napoleonic Armies during their conquest of the German Rhineland in the first years of the nineteenth century. As in the English case, the contents of monasteries were sold off (no doubt also looted) and “contents” including stained glass windows appeared in quantities at auctions in Cologne. After Napoleon’s defeat, there was no reversion to the pre-Napoleonic past. There were no restrictions on export and foreign dealers took an interest in what was being sold. Among the dealers was John Curling who had independent wealth in farms and a fine house (Gosmore) in Hertfordshire. He bought the best and in 1828 thanks to new steamship services which reached to Cologne was able to export his purchases safely and securely to England and pay the duties demanded on entry. He liaised with his brother Edward Spencer Curling who had helpful roles at the Channel ports. The Duke of Wellington’s correspondence from this period, held at the University of Southampton, includes a couple of dozen letters from Edward Curling in his capacity as Netherlands Consul at Deal and Ramsgate, Hamburg Vice Consul at Ramsgate, agent of Lloyds of London, and simply ship owner in his own right.

The stained glass was measured by the square-foot so that a potential buyer could estimate if they had windows big enough to take what was being offered. Curling’s principal purchase, recorded in his diary at the time, amounted to 200 square feet removed from Altenberg Abbey in the Rhineland and the Cloister of St Aspern in Cologne itself. When Curling bought in 1828 it seems he wanted to install the glass in his own parish church, but the idea of Popish goods went down badly in a part of the country which was low church and non-conformist. In 1832 Curling exhibited his panels in London, again without success. The 1836 letter below shows him pitching his wares to Viscount Grimston, later Earl of Verulam (St Albans). The Mr Hanbury-Tracey named in the letter is Charles Hanbury-Tracy who in 1835 served as Chairman of the Commission to judge designs for London’s new Houses of Parliament and hence a man with impeccable Gothic credentials. But Grimston did not buy and eventually the panels went to St Mary’s in Shrewsbury on the initiative of the vicar; Wikipedia has the details, “Glass in the north windows of the chancel and the central part of the south aisle were made for the Cistercian Altenberg Abbey between 1505 and 1532. They depict scenes from the life of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and were bought for St Mary's by Rev W. G. Rowland, the vicar in 1845, at a cost of £425 … Also in the south aisle are two windows from the church of St Aspern in Cologne”

*

Transcription

Addressed to: Lord Visct. Grimston, M.P.   Poste Restante   Paris

Datelined: Gosmore  Oct 23^rd 1836

My Lord

My stained glass is in Parliament Street London and I shall feel great pleasure in showing to your friends at any time it may suit their convenience for which purpose I will meet them on their fixing a time.

In quantity it contains 200 square feet and it will therefore suffice for a window 20 feet by 10 or as many smaller ones as it may be desirable to subdivide it into. It is in twenty-five oak frames, packed in strong cases in which it may be removed in perfect safety to any distance.

Of its merits I need say nothing as the Public have passed judgement upon it attributing it to Albert Durer. I have by me some printed circulars containing extracts from certain periodicals by whom it was noticed at the time I exhibited it. I will enclose one to Grosvenor Square for your consideration, to avoid the expense of double postage to Paris. The price is 250 £ much about the sum it cost me. The duty is paid upon it, and it is in so perfect a state of preservation that it may be put up at a very moderate expense.

Earl de Grey, Mr Hanbury Tracey and a host of Artists and Amateurs have pronounced their high admiration of it, giving also their opinions that it is most certainly the work of Albert Durer.

I remain, Your Lordships most obedient servant                            John Curling.

*

Reference

Martin, Peter Laurence The European Trade in Stained Glass, with Special Reference to the Trade between the Rhineland and the United Kingdom 1794–1835. M Phil thesis, University of York 2012

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Church,_Shrewsbury